queen of the bed

"However little television you watch, watch less.  

Read.  Read for pleasure.

Read for happiness."

-David McCullough

And so I have.

Thoroughly absorbed in an 800 page tome

with a small stack waiting on my chair.

While wandering through my local greenhouse Saturday

I found a large palm plant in the discount section.

I have a weakness for wayward plants so now I wake 

under the sweeping green boughs each morning.

I hope it will get enough sun in that corner,

but better a chance with me than into the dust bin.

Cut veggies to be roasted for dinner

and Pantone color reference cards to try and spur

my reluctance to commit paint onto board.

It's snowing again...

but spring is just a couple of weeks away.

xo, j

weekend

A weekend of puttering about.

Local air show watched from the side of the road.

Ingredients for eggplant lasagna from a roadside stand.

I dyed "mill end" wool from a local factory with Black Cherry Kool-Aid.

Finished Dandelion embroidery, now what will it become?

finally sun

There may still be some clouds but today the sun returned.

After puttering around the house 

I spent about an hour weeding in my friend's garden.

The other day I was at work chatting with a customer about 

my garden sitting opportunity and he replied,

"ooh...that's a tricky thing, what if something dies?"

Guess I never thought about it but now that it's been mentioned I'm wondering

 if I maybe took out a row of carrots and weeded around other weeds!

If you're reading this Jennifer, please remember I had the best of intentions!

The radishes were pushing their way out of the ground,

some of them beginning to split from all the rain,

so I pulled two out for myself.

It's the Fourth of July, the day our country declared its independence.

My thanks to all who have served to keep it that way.

Tonight fireworks will light up the sky.

garden gnome

A friend of mine is on vacation and asked if I would watch her garden.

Earthworms, pincher bugs, ants and all!

Tonight I stopped over after work to do some weeding.

How eagerly we jump into tasks that are unfamiliar!

Pulling weeds is much like knitting to me,

a repetitive action that slows me down, smoothing away the day.

A regular garden gnome, I am!

Perhaps I should felt myself a little red cap.

*smile*

The beautiful kale was my reward for topping off the wheel barrow.

Guess what's for dinner tonight!

sunday market

My job has been taking up a great deal of my time lately,

indeed I'm afraid it will only get worse over the next two weeks,

but this morning I made time to visit my local Farmers' Market.

The baby turnips and bok choy were just too beautiful!

I made quinoa full of veggies for lunch.

A front should be moving through tonight bringing some heavy rain

and hopefully pushing away the heat and humidity of the past few days.

It's been sizzling hot around here lately.

Hoping all have been enjoying a lovely weekend.

xo, j

Cabbage, Beets and 'Taters

This past weekend my city mouse friend braved the country 

(and muddied her expensive boots!)

 to pick the above seasonal veg from her friend's farm.

The season has been quite mild but

 this will probably be the last viable harvest.

The cabbage is enormous, weighing in at 9 pounds!

Tomorrow is our Thanksgiving Holiday.

I'll certainly be chopping, peeling and roasting.

New York in the Rain

Chelsea Food Market

Purl Soho (sorry, no flash)

Union Square Market

Empire State Building 

Uptown

Downtown

My beautiful city...

Every year my brother and I make a trip into the city.

It rained or drizzled most of the day but we still had a great time.

Chelsea, Soho, Little Italy (for lunch!) and the Empire State Building.

I know it's cliche, but I do love New York.

Roadside Stand and Farmer's Market, NC

I'm back from my vacation to the far North Western corner of North Carolina.

The first two photos were taken at a roadside stand by my brother.

I love the one of the peaches, so glad he remembered his camera!

The other three photos were taken at the Saturday Farmer's Market.

The town is quite small and the people were so friendly, everyone seemed to know each other.

I bought organic garlic, homemade raspberry jam and a big jar of local honey,

complete with honeycomb.

Blissful abundance